RWBY: Swapverse

(Part 2)

Spade paused the screen, "Thoughts?"

"It's interesting, to say the least." Ozpin said.

Nora tried saying something, but she had her mouth stuffed with food, so all that anyone heard was muffled talking.

"Nora, you're nineteen. Don't talk with your mouth full."

The redhead (or ginger? Given her teammate's hair color?) swallowed her food, "Hehe, sorry! I said I like it so far!"

"I definitely didn't expect to get swapped with the general over there." Yang said, pointing a thumb at Ironwood on the other side of the room, "Or ex-general, I guess?"

"Will we be watching more?" Summer asked.

"If you want to."

It was mostly unanimous in wanting to watch more, with the exception of Adam, Mercury, and Arthur not caring.

Spade unpaused the screen.

The screen faded in. Cinder and Qrow walked through a giant archway into a large building. It was smaller than the first one they saw, but it was still pretty big. There was a large crowd already gathered there.

"Cinder! Over here!" James called out from the crowd. He waved to get his sister's attention.

Cinder perked up and almost ran off, but quickly turned back to Qrow first, "That's my brother! I'll see you after the ceremony!"

"Wha- hey!" Qrow frowned and walked off, presumably to find his sister. The screen stuck for a moment longer, showing a white-haired girl- who looked very familiar- watch him leave.

"Hey! It's Winter!" Velvet said, pointing out the obvious.

Raven put her hand to her chin, "How is she allowed to enroll at Beacon if her sister's a criminal?"

"I tried not to judge applicants based off of their family's wrongdoings. It would seem that that is also the case here." Ozpin said, sipping his drink.

Cinder stood next to James, "I can't believe you ditched me! I'm so telling Dad when he calls!"

James looked at her with a partially panicked look, "Hey! Don't go snitching on me! I just wanted you to make friends on your own!"

"That didn't- okay, well, I did meet a definite friend and a guy who I think is my friend? But I exploded in the process!"

"Meltdown already?"

Cinder glared at him, "No! I literally exploded and made a hole in front of the school! And before you ask- no, it wasn't because of my crystals!"

He gave a questioning look, to which she scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Look, I tripped over some rich kid's luggage, which was apparently filled with Dust, then he started yelling at me, and then I sneezed, then I exploded, then he yelled at me again, and I felt bad until he insulted me, but he just wouldn't stop yelling!"

The camera slowly panned to the side as she spoke, showing a very unhappy Roman standing right behind her.

"You!"

Cinder leaped into James' arms, both looking a bit frightened, "Oh god, it's happening again!"

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" he said, leaning towards them.

James looked at his sister, "Oh my god, you really exploded."

"She did." Weiss, Blake, and Jaune said in unison.

Ruby shook her head slightly, deadpanning at the screen, "It was not a fun experience. Zero out of ten, would not recommend trying."

Summer looked at Tai and Qrow with a questioning look, to which they both shrugged.

She jumped down, "It was an accident!"

Roman shoved a pamphlet reading "Dust for Dummies" in her face.

She tilted her head, "What's this?"

"The Torchwick Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Torchwick company product. Although not mandatory, the Torchwick family highly encourages customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy-to-follow guide to Dust application and practice in the field."

"… what…?"

"Do you really want to make things up to me?"

"Yes…"

He shoved the pamphlet into her hands, "Read this and never speak to me again."

James scratched the back of his head, "I'm not entirely sure what happened here, but it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot… why not start over and try to be friends?"

Cinder pocketed the pamphlet, "Yeah, great idea!" she offered her hand, "Hello, Roman. I'm Cinder. Wanna be friends? We could, uh… go shopping for school supplies…?" she grinned awkwardly.

"Y'know, now that I think about it, I'm not really sure why school supplies was the first thing to come to mind. We had pretty much everything we needed already at Beacon." Ruby said, questioning her past words.

Spade was playing with Yuki's tails, much to the annoyance of the little kitsune, "Probably just a spur of the moment. Didn't have time to think about it so you just said whatever you could think of."

"Hm. Probably."

"Sure! And we can get our hair done, and try on clothes, and talk about boys like tall, dark-haired, and scraggly back there!" Roman said sarcastically, pointing back at Qrow, who wasn't even paying attention, with his thumb.

Winter side-eyed Qrow up and down for a moment, shrugging afterwards. "Scraggly" wasn't the best word to describe him but it fit fairly well.

Qrow looked at Roman with a confused look, "What…?"

Cinder crossed her arms, "Well, ya didn't have to be so sarcastic about it…"

Their conversation (if you could even call it that) stopped as they heard the sound of mic feedback and a woman clearing her throat. The three turned to the stage.

Professor Salem was onstage, a microphone in front of her, "Hello, all. I'll keep this brief."

The camera did a slow, zoomed out pan of the stage. Neo was standing near Salem, looking at her the entire time.

"You have all come here seeking knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But when I look amongst you… all I see is wasted energy… in need of purpose, direction."

"That's, uh… that's not very uplifting…" Marrow commented.

Harriet rolled her eyes, "You don't say."

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will show you that knowledge alone can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

She walked offstage and Neo walked up to the mic.

"You will gather in the barn tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation will begin. Be ready. You're dismissed."

The crowd talked amongst themselves. James looked at Cinder and Roman, "Did she seem kinda… off?"

Cinder nodded, "It was like she wasn't even there…"

The siblings' trains of thought was interrupted by Qrow leaning over to Roman, "I'm not scraggly, by the way."

Roman just facepalmed and shook his head.

The scene cut to nighttime. A room full of sleeping bags was shown, and some students were running around. Cinder was on her stomach, scribbling something down in a book.

"It's like a big slumber party!" James said as he crashed down next to her, supporting his head with one arm. Her eyes went wide and she glanced over to him before looking back at her book.

"James, you're gonna break your arm doing that." she said, not looking up.

He brushed it off, "I'll be fine! And even if I did somehow break it, it's not like I'd lose it."

The audience went quiet for a moment, some glancing at the former general.

"Well, that's not foreshadowing at all." Yang said sarcastically.

"If you say so."

He glanced at her book, "What's that?"

She looked at him, "A letter to my friends back at Signal. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how everything's going."

"Well, isn't that adora-" he was cut off by Cinder slamming a pillow in his face.

"Shush! It's not like I can pack my friends up and take them to school! I don't like not knowing anyone here…"

"What about Qrow? He seems nice. Soo, you have one friend. That's one point."

Cinder flipped over onto her back, hands behind her head, "Pretty sure Roman counts as a negative friend. Back to zero points."

"Negative friends aren't a thing. You just have one friend point and one enemy point." Cinder threw her other pillow at him as soon as he finished.

"There's a point system?" Ilia asked.

Ruby and Yang looked at each other and shrugged.

"It's just something we made up. Didn't really use it, though." the blonde said.

He sighed, "Look, it's only been a day. You've got years to make friends. Just like back at Signal."

"Yeah, but I didn't almost blow myself off a cliff at Signal and earn the nickname 'crater face.'"

"… touché."

The two looked up at what sounded like a match being lit. The camera switched to show Adam sitting against the wall, a candle lit next to him and a book in his hand. He still had the bandage over his eye and had a hoodie on with the hood up and strings drawn enough that it wouldn't fall off.

Cinder blinked, a little surprised, "He still has that bandage on…"

James raised an eyebrow, "You know him?"

"Kinda? He saw what happened this morning and only gave me his name when he left. Adam, I think?"

"Welp, now you can know more than that!" James said, getting up and dragging Cinder with him.

Cinder struggled to no avail, "Wha- hey! What're you doing?!"

Adam lowered his book to see the pair walking towards him, James waving while looking happy and Cinder almost falling over from being dragged while making what could only be described as "struggling noises."

A few giggles could be heard as the audience watched onscreen Cinder struggle to get free.

"Hey! I believe you met my sister earlier today?" James said as Cinder flung his hand off her wrist, turning away and crossing her arms.

Adam looked up, blinking a couple times, "Didn't you explode this morning?"

Cinder whipped around, "No! I mean, yeah, I did… but it was an accident! Uh… I'm Cinder." she extended her arm briefly before retracting it back, "Adam, right?"

He nodded, looking back at his book, "Mhm."

James looked at his sister, "Say something!" he whisper-shouted.

Cinder looked at him, slightly annoyed, "You say something! I dunno what I'm doing!" she said in the same tone.

He sighed, "Well, Adam, I'm James! Cinder's older brother!"

Adam didn't bother looking up, "Nice to meet you…"

"Uh… I like your hoodie!"

"Thanks…"

"It, uhm… it suits you…!"

"Mhm…"

Yang rested her head on her hand, "Sheesh, even Blake was more talkative than him."

"Yeah… their conversation isn't going anywhere…" the mentioned cat Faunus said.

The siblings looked at each other, both unsure what to say. It was obvious the boy had no intention carrying on with the conversation.

"So, uh… what's with the bandage?" James asked.

Cinder elbowed him in the ribs as Adam glanced up, glaring at him. He smiled nervously as he realized his mistake.

Mercury shifted in his seat, "I can feel the murderous intent from here. Bad call, dude."

Sienna glanced at Adam, "Adam always was a bit sensitive when it came to his eye. Almost killed a guy because he kept prying."

The bull Faunus stayed quiet. Spade wasn't sure if he was falling asleep or just didn't have anything to say.

"Forget he said anything!" Cinder said, trying to make the situation less awkward, "What, uh, what're you reading?"

There was a brief silence. Adam's look softened and he fully looked up, "It's about a woman with two souls, both fighting for control over her body."

Cinder smiled, "I love books. James used to read to me all the time. Usually fairytales with heros and monsters… they're part of the reason I wanna be a Huntress."

"Why's that? Hoping you'll get the same ending?"

"Well… I'm hoping everyone will. Everyone deserves a happy ending. And I've always wanted to be like those heros, protecting people and fighting for what's right. It's like a dream of mine."

He lowered his book, "That's… a very ambitious dream. Unfortunately, the real world isn't like that of a fairytale…"

She smiled, "That's why we're here! We're gonna make it better!"

James hugged Cinder from behind and lifted her up, "I'm so proud of my baby sister! Dreaming of becoming like the heros she admires!"

"Wha- James! Put me down!" she started smacking him and the two got into a very cartoonish fight.

Several people laughed at the sight. Yang jokingly nudged her sister, who lightly smacked her shoulder in retaliation.

Adam slowly blinked a couple times before putting a bookmark in his book and closing it, setting it next to him.

"What in the world are you doing?!" the three heard Roman say as he stormed over to them, "Don't you realize people are trying to sleep?!"

James and Roman had a moment of realization, "Oh, not you again!" they yelled in the same tone as Cinder shushed them.

"Be quiet! He's right, people are trying to sleep!"

Adam sighed and shook his head as the two boys argued, picking up the candle and blowing it out, making the screen go black.

Spade paused the screen and teleported in front of Adam, who had his head on his hand, and leaned down to eye level with him. Everyone stared at them, wondering what the hell they were doing. They reached out and poked the Faunus' forehead, making him jolt slightly and look at them.

"Aha. So he was falling asleep." they stood up straight and teleported back to their seat.

Yuki hopped out of Spade's hoodie and stretched as they turned off the screen, "I think it's time y'all go to bed. Go into the lounge area and Cici will take it from there. Night!" they picked up Yuki and disappeared, along with their beanbag.

Everyone got up from their seats and stretched their legs a bit before leaving the theater. Cici and Monika were sitting at the bar talking with Camilla. For those who didn't meet Monika earlier, they saw a pale girl with almost powder pink hair in a style like Miki's, but with her bangs covering her eyes. She also had fluffy cat ears and a tail the same color as her hair and, oddly enough, wasn't wearing shoes.

Marrow's tail wagged upon seeing the pink cat, "Hi, Monika!"

Monika's ears turned in his direction and she waved that way, "Hi, Marrow!"

Cici got up and popped her back like Spade had earlier before walking over to everyone, "Finally done?"

"Indeed we are, Miss Ignis. Spade told us to come to you before they bid us a good night." Port said.

"Great! So, to get to your rooms, you'll go into the hall and go left. Go down to the end and make a right, then the second left from there. The entire hall is just identical bedrooms, but I put a plaque with your name on it next to the door to your specific room. Just find your room, touch the plaque, and a key will appear in your hand. Don't lose it. Most of you will only have one roommate, but some of you will have two. If there are any issues, just call on someone and we'll fix it. Any questions?"

Arthur raised his hand, catching Cici's attention, "And what if we don't like our roommate?"

She blinked a couple times, her face remaining the same, "Deal with it. You'll get a new roommate if you have any big issues but as of now you're stuck with them."

"Noted…"

"Welp, off you go!" she said, shooing everyone out into the hallway, "Oh, and if you ever get hungry during the night, just know that the kitchen is always open! Bye!" she said as she disappeared.

The crowd took the directions they were given and found the bedroom hall. It took a bit of searching and relooking, but eventually all the rooms had been found and everyone got their key. Based on what they'd seen of the house so far, they were expecting something very big, but instead were met with rooms much nicer than expected.

The rooms were big, but not big enough to be uncomfortably so, and had the same walls and floors as the rest of the house. The beds were against the center of the back wall and were huge (Alaskan king beds [9ftx9ft]) yet very comfy. There was a large television on the wall to the right of the door, a loveseat straight ahead of it and a couple chairs off to the side with a wooden coffee table on a black carpet between them. There was a desk and chair to the left of the door, along with what looked like a stereo against the wall. There was also a chess table in a spot between the bed and the desk, which most found odd, and a large dresser/wardrobe on the left-side wall.

Each room had its own bathroom. Said bathrooms had a bathtub and walk-in shower (positioned in the center and right side of the room, respectively), double (or in some cases triple) sinks with large mirrors, and a smaller room inside with the toilet. There was an unusually large towel cabinet to the left of the door, but no one really questioned it. Unlike the rest of the house, the bathrooms had white walls with white tile floors. There were black bathmats in front of the shower and tub, and all the towels were black.

Everyone did what the need to do, whether it was use the bathroom, take a quick shower, change clothes (although most everything in the dressers were the same thing), or brush their teeth. Eventually, they all settled down in their beds. Some pairs (or groups) sleeping comfortably next to each other, others staying as far away from each other as possible, and some just being too tired to care.

Spade waited in their own room for Cinder to get done with her task of putting everyone to bed.

Their room was much smaller and different from the rest of the house in the fact that the floor wasn't actual wood. It simply looked like it. The walls were covered in graffiti, most of which were actually symbols and whatnot from shows and games they liked. Their bed was smaller and lower to the ground than the others, being only half a foot off the floor, and was shoved into the corner of the room to the left of the door. There was a desk and chair across from the bed in the top left corner, along with some sort of net holding pillows having been hung up above it. There was a small dresser on the right-side wall and a black papasan chair in the top right corner. A walk-in closet was about a foot from the chair, and there was a chain containing keychains of various figures draped along the rest of the back wall.

Yuki was curled up on the left pillow on the bed while Spade laid on the right side, working on something on their phone. The two were startled when Cinder suddenly burst through the door- thankfully not breaking it- with a clipboard of papers in her hand.

"They're asleep and I got the list and layout you wanted!" she said, walking to the bed and handing her friend the clipboard as they sat up.

She sat on the bed and petted Yuki as Spade read the papers. The first paper was a layout of the bed hall, each room being labeled with two or three initials, signifying who was in there. The second paper was a list of everyone who was rooming together. Spade read down the list:

Ghira and Kali…

Ruby and Emerald…

Vine and Elm…

Whitley and Oscar…

Qrow, Winter, and Clover…

Ironwood and Adam…

"Ironwood and Adam? Weird pairing, but okay." they shrugged and continued reading.

Sun and Blake…

Weiss and Neptune…

Yang and Merc…

Raven and Cinder…

Hazel and Arthur…

Spade suddenly stopped.

"Wait- Raven… and Cinder…" they slowly looked up at Cinder.

"Cinder…"

"Yes?"

"Why did you put Raven and Cinder together?"

"Look farther down and you'll see I put Salem with Ozpin and Glynda." she grinned mischievously.

Spade pinched the bridge of their nose, "Cinder, if any of them kill each other, you're doing the resurrection next time."

"Fine by me. I just wanted to see what would happen."

"… get out."

"'Kay."

And with that, Cinder left the room. Spade tossed the clipboard onto their desk and plopped back down onto the bed.

They sighed and looked at Yuki, "How do you think Agatha put up with her for so long? I mean, seventeen hundred years is a long time."

Yuki just looked at them for a moment before turning around to face the other way. Spade sighed and went back to working on the phone.

. . .

"Hey, I know you're like a demon… god… thing… but if you fart on me I'm making you sleep on the floor."

I'M ALIVE BITCHES!!! Unfortunately (/j)

I spent WAY too long on this shit. I had originally intended to make Swapverse four parts long, but then the time it was taking for just the two parts was stressing me out. Stress piling on top of more stress isn't really a good thing, y'know? Anyway, I decided to cut it down to two parts and leave it at that. Sorry for the wait btw. This made me realize I need to stop lying to myself with deadlines.

Anywho, I'll get to the next viewing chapter when I can. I had decided on what it was going to be but changed my mind and decided on something else. And I say "viewing chapter" bc I just wanted to ask; would y'all wanna see what I call "Bed Hall Shenanigans?" Basically, the chapter focuses on what's going on in some of the bedrooms. Not all of them, but a handful of them. They'd be placed as the next chapter after everyone goes to bed and take place either when they wake up in the morning or right before they sleep. Lemme know if ya wanna see it.

Now back into the pit of despair I go! Bye!

(Also, did anyone catch the reference I put in?)